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Young Saugerties couple wins $1m jackpot

Jason and Joy Peterson, married in June, never dreamed their big day would be followed by a Mega payday just five months later. The Petersons are the newest statewide winners of a $1,000,000 cash prize on the New York Lottery’s new Mega Money Multiplier scratch-off game.

Jason Peterson purchased the couple’s $1,000,000 winning ticket on October 7 at the I & W (Mobil) Food Mart on Route 32 in Kingston. “I was on my way to work and stopped to put some gas in my truck,” explained the auto parts professional. “I went inside and decided to grab a ticket. I asked for one of the newest [tickets] they had and the clerk handed me this one.” Peterson said he wasn’t prepared for the shock of winning $1,000,000. “I was shaking like a leaf,” explained the father of three. “My first thought was to call my wife and then I called work to tell them I would be late.” Joy Peterson, 47, who works in sales support, said she answered her husband’s telephone call with cautious optimism. “I kept asking, ‘Are you sure? Are you SURE?'”

The Petersons claimed their prize October 27 at the Lottery’s Customer Service Center in Schenectady. The couple opted to split the $1,000,000 prize evenly with each receiving a one-time payment of $500,000 (net $330,150). The newlyweds plan to use the prize to “secure their children’s future” and buy a new home of their own. Asked about plans for a second honeymoon, Jason Peterson quipped, “We might take a quiet family vacation…to Disney!”

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The Peterson’s win marks the second time in 2011 that a resident of Saugerties has won or shared a $1,000,000 Lottery prize. Ruth Robinson, the former manager of the Orpheum Theater, received her $1,000,000 prize on the Sterling Silver scratch-off game in July. Robinson purchased her lucky ticket at the Speedy Mart on Main St. in Saugerties. Other recent Ulster County Lottery millionaires include Paul Leone, Jr. of Lake Hill who won a $3,000,000Lotto jackpot in 2009 and Douglas Countryman of High Falls who claimed a $1,000,000 top prize on the New York Poker scratch-off game in 2007.